The race to represent CD-2, my new district this year, has not been resolved thanks to a close race and a whole lot of as-yet uncounted ballots, many of them provisional. The state created this mess by consolidating voting locations and insisting on much more of this 'provisional' voting this time around, and they've managed to surpass Florida in terms of election-day screwups.
The latest news is unfortunate, but I think predictable: now they're hitting the courts trying to disqualify some provisional ballots in this rather close race, and I wonder who has been hurt more by this provisional method, anyway?
Found this piece of news from the Sierra Vista Herald.
BISBEE - Proceedings at a Cochise County Superior Court hearing on whether 131 provisional ballots should be knocked out of the Nov. 6 election results will resume at 2:30 p.m.
Tuesday morning attorneys representing Martha McSally, the Republican candidate for Congressional District 2, asked Judge Wallace Hoggatt to issue a restraining order, eliminating the ballots from the final tabulation of votes.
I'm sure it's just coincidence that McSally's lawyers would be out trying to disenfranchise some folks. It's not many, yet, but I would not be surprised if they find more. And the more 'provisional' roadblocks they plant between a voter and their rights, the easier it seems to become to rob folks of those rights.
Fortunately Ron Barber has been allowed to present arguments for the other side. The news piece also reports the current state of the vote, with Barber holding a slim 512-vote lead as of now. I (and many others I'm sure) are keeping an eye on the AZ SOS website for any updates to the unofficial totals.
As of 5:11 p.m. Monday, when the Arizona Secretary of State announced the statewide number of ballots still to be counted, Cochise County had 6,795 uncounted early ballots and 2,326 uncounted provisional ballots for a total of 9,121.